Pneumatic tire mounting device



March 13, 1962 J. w. BOWERSOX PNEUMATIC TIRE MOUNTING DEVICE OriginalFiled Feb. 27, 1959 United States Patent Ofilice 3,024,830 Patented Mar.13, 1962 3,024,830 PNEUMATIC TIRE MOUNTING DEVICE Joseph W. Bowersox,Carmel, Calif., assignor to Terra Engineering Company, Inc., Carmel,Califi, a corporation of Delaware Substituted for abandoned applicationSer. No. 796,117, Feb. 27, 1959. This application Apr. 20, 1960, Ser.No. 23,521

2 Claims. (Cl. 152-396) This invention relates to a device for mountingwidebase tires on vehicles and pertains more specifically to such adevice adapted to be mounted on a vehicle in place of conventionalwheels.

There have been developed wide-base, low-pressure tires which provideimproved support and traction for vehicles in soft or sandy soil or insnow with reduced resistance to rolling and consequently reduced powerrequirements for the vehicle. While they may contain inner tubes, theyare preferably tubeless, being sealed to the mounting device to form anair-tight chamber. Such tires, because of their wide base and wideprofile, cannot be mounted on conventional vehicle wheels, so that theiruse, despite obvious advantages, has been impeded by the necessity formanufacturing vehicles with special hub and axle assemblies designed toaccept such tires.

One object of the present invention is to provide a device for mountingsuch tires which is adapted to be mounted on a vehicle in place of aconventional wheel.

Another object is to provide a tire-mounting device of the typedescribed which is of simple and inexpensive construction and on whichsuch a tire can readily be mounted in air-tight relation.

Still another object is to provide a tire-mounting device of the typedescribed in which both beads of the tire are clamped to the device inair-tight relation and in which the device forms an air-tight chamberwith the tire.

A further object is to provide a device of the type described composedof a plurality of parts of such size and configuration that those whichare to be disposed within the interior of the tire can readily beintroduced past the beads without the necessity for using any tools orspecial equipment and which can readily be assembled in place to form anair-tight enclosure with' the tire.

A further object is to provide a device of the type described in whichthe clamping force exerted against the beads of the tire is balancedagainst the force employed to seal the several parts of the device inair-tight relation with each other.

Other and further objects will be apparent from the drawing and from thedescription which follows.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation, partly broken away and in section,showing one embodiment of my device carrying a tire mounted in positionon a vehicle;

FIG. 2 is an end view of my device taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an isometric view showing one of the beadretaining flanges ofthe embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an isometric view of another bead-retaining flange of theembodiment shown in FIG. 1, the flange of FIG. 4 being adapted to matewith the flange of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view in cross section on an enlarged scale taken along line55 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 6 is a view in cross section on an enlarged scale taken along line6-6 of FIG. 2.

As appears from FIG. 1 of the drawing, the device of the presentinvention is intended for use with a tubeless pneumatic tire 10 having awide low profile with the beads 12, 14 widely spaced from each other. Ingeneral, tires of this type have a tread width at least one-half asgreat as the overall tire diameter. Such tires provide a much greaterarea of tread in contact with the ground than do tires of normalprofile, thus reducing greatly the load on each unit area of the groundover which the tire passes. Such tires can operate at much lowerinflation pressure than normal tires, even as low as 2 p.s.i. or evenlower pressures being possible. While pressures as high as 20 psi. oreven 30 psi. or more may be employed in such tires, they are usually notrequired; and the preferred pressures normally range from 2 psi to about20 psi.

The device of the present invention on which such tires may be mountedcomprises a rigid annular beadretaining flange 16 provided with anopening in its center and having a circle or ring of lug holes 22, 22 ofsuch size and spacing that flange 16 is adapted to be mounted on thethreaded wheel lugs 24 of a conventional hub 26 in place of aconventional wheel. Holes 22, 22 are countersunk to receive conventionalconical wheel lug nuts 28 (see FIG. 6). A second rigid bead-retainingflange 30 is also provided with a central aperture 32 and mates withflange 16 in face-to-face abutting relation to form an annular channelin which the inboard bead portion 14 of tire 10 is clamped inhermetically sealed, airtight relation, as best shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.

A second pair of mating rigid bead-retaining flanges 34, 36 is providedfor clamping the outboard bead portion 12 of tire 10. Flanges 34, 36 maybe and preferably are identical with flanges 16 and 30 respectively, sothat they may readily be interchanged with each other. It is notessential, however, that flange 34 be provided with lug holes 22, 22,and if desired this flange may differ from flange 16 in omitting suchholes.

A spacer member 40 in the form of an open-ended, hollow, tubular elementhaving an imperforate, generally cylindrical wall is provided formaintaining flanges 16, 30 and flanges 34, 36 in the desired spacedrelationship. A conventional .air valve 42 for inflating and deflatingtire 10 is mounted in the cylindrical wall of spacer 40 and extends intothe hollow interior thereof. Flanges 30, 36 are arranged to abut againstthe opposing ends of spacer member 40, a rubber O-ring 44 being mountedin an annular channel in each end of spacer member 40, as shown in FIGS.5 and 6, to provide an air-tight seal between each end of spacer member40 and the beadretaining flanges 30, 36. The flanges and spacer memberare preferably made of steel, aluminum alloy or other strong rigidmaterial. Bolts 46, 46 extending through mating holes 48, 48, 50, Si inthe bead-retaining flanges are threadedly engaged in tapped holes 52, 52in the ends of spacer member 40, as shown in FIG. 5. Each O-ring 44 isarranged to surround the circle of bolts 46 so that the bolts are sealedfrom the air chamber formed by the tire when it is mounted in place.Since flanges 30 and 36 are interposed between the ends of spacer member40 and the corresponding outermost flanges 16, 34, it will be clear thatas bolts 46, 46 are tightened, the sealing force exerted between flange30 and O-ring 44 is exactly balanced by the sealing clamping forceapplied to the bead 14 of the tire by the opposing faces of flanges 30,16. Similarly, the sealing force between flange 36 and its opposingO-ring is balanced by the force applied to bead 12 by flanges 34, 36.Thus there is ensured at one operation an adequate air-tight seal bothbetween the tire and the bead-engaging flanges and between both pairs offlanges and the: spacer member 40. A cover plate 60 may be secured overthe central aperture of outermost flange 34 by bolts 62.

In mounting a tire upon the device, no tools or special equipment otherthan a wrench is required. Although the bead portion of such tires, likethe beads of all other tires, are inextensible, being provided with asteel core or grommet, the bead can readily be distorted to an ovalshape manually, thus permitting introduction into the interior of thetire of flanges 30, 36 along with spacer member 40. One outermostflange, such as flange 16, is then applied to the outside of tire beadportion 14 and aligned with flange 30 and with spacer member 40,whereupon bolts 46, 46 are screwed into place. In the same way,outermost flange 34 is mounted at the opposite end of spacer member 40and both pairs of flanges are tightened by means of bolts 46, 46 toclamp bead portions 12, 14 of the tire in air-tight relation to theflanges and at the same time to seal the flanges against the ends ofspacer member 40 by compressing O-rings 44. The entire assembly may thenbe mounted on hub 26 in the same manner as an ordinary wheel. The wheellugs 24, 24 are accessible through the interior of hollow spacer member40 for this operation. Cover plate 60 may be removably secured in placeover the central aperture of outer bead-retaining flange 34 by means ofbolts 62 if desired. Tire may be inflated through valve 42 either beforeor after mounting of the assembly on hub 26, cover plate 60 beingremovable to permit access to valve 42 for this purpose.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been describedherein, it is not intended to limit the invention solely thereto, but toinclude all of the obvious variations and modifications within thespirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for mounting a wide-base tubeless tire on a vehiclecomprising a hollow open-ended tubular member having an imperforate wallprovided with a tire-inflating valve extending into the interior of saidmember, a first annular bead-engaging flange disposed at each end ofsaid tubular member in abutting relation thereto, a second annularbead-engaging flange disposed beyond each of the first said flanges inabutting relation thereto, said flanges forming at each end of saidtubular member an annular bead-receiving channel within which the beadsof said tire are adapted to be clamped in airtight relation and havingaligned central apertures opening into the interior of said tubularmember to provide access to said inflating valve, sealing means formingan air-tight seal between each end of said tubular member and each ofsaid first flanges, and meas for securing said flanges to said tubularmember, the outermost flange at one end of said tubular member beingadapted to be mounted on a hub in place of a conventional wheel.

2. A device as defined in claim 1 in which said securing means comprisesmeans for urging the outermost flange at each end of said tubular membertoward the end of said member with the other flange interposed betweenthe end of said member and said outermost flange, and said sealing meanscomprises a compressible element interposed between the end of saidtubular member and said other flange, whereby the clamping force appliedto said tire bead is balanced by the sealing force applied to saidcompressible sealing element.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,257,413 Sloper Feb. 26, 1918 1,842,219 Trautman Jan. 1 9, 19322,548,190 Arpin Apr. 10, 1951

